Hard to believe today but it’s true. ‘X-Men’ was the embarrassment of the Marvel Universe. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby had abandoned the mutants early in its run to concentrate on better-selling books such as The Mighty Thor and Fantastic Four. The annals of Charles Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters languished for years, maintained as it were by talented but still undistinguished creative teams, bolstered only by a few Jim Steranko issues and some interesting work by Neal Adams. (As the story goes, Adams specifically asked Stan Lee for Marvel's worst-selling title so he could have complete creative control). Cancellation didn’t even come swiftly, since at the dawn of the 70s the book was refitted into a bi-monthly reprint series, recycling many of the older stories in a sort of "Mutant Life Support" system.

There was still something to this mutant idea, however, and Len Wein knew it. So after five years of relative dormancy, Marvel decided to start from scratch with a new cast of characters. Dave Cockrum was brought in to contribute costume designs and character ideas. These veered far from the squeaky-clean American teen image from Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s Silver Age. In fact they were neither teens nor American! Young mutants from Germany, Africa, Russia, Ireland, Canada and the Native American West would all be represented.

Not only were these new mutants from different backgrounds, their creations were varied as well. Wolverine came from a guest spot in Incredible Hulk, where he sauntered out of the hinterlands of theCanadia north to break up a brawl between ol'green jeans and Wendigo (a monster that would rear his ugly head towards the end of the Claremont/Byrne era.) Banshee was previously an X-Men villain from the SilverAge days of yore (see X-Men Masterworks Vol. 3 for his first legendary cover appearance) and Nightcrawler's origins were as one of Cockrum's discarded Legion of Super-Heroes designs! This team would truly be "All New and All-Different," the new catchphrase that adorned the X-Men title.

The storytelling is also a major departure from what X-Men fans were used to reading. From the beginning of the run, stories bled seamlessly from one to the next. Slam-bang action gave way to a deeper, more emotional tone. Stan Lee may have pioneered the super hero team that didn’t get along, but the New X-Men were almost violent towards each other in their arguments. More than one mutant would quit the team for personal reasons. And, by making one member an early casualty in the line of duty, readers were kept on edge knowing there might not be a safe return to the status quo at the end of 22 pages.

Links to the past are few, found mainly in Cyclops, the team leader, as after the mass mutant reunion of the Giant-Size premiere, the old guard members faded into the background (Jean Grey for a brief time,) or to other teams (Angel and Iceman joining the Champions, Beast joining the Avengers.) The Sentinels, a fan favorite, return to kick off the volume’s final arc. Count Nefaria and the Ani-Men, second stringers from the original run, also make an appearance. And when original X-Men arrive, it’s not the same old thing. Just look what happens to Havok, Polaris and Jean Grey when they resurface!

But the most important member didn’t arrive with the premiere of the new X-Men in Giant Size X-Men #1. Legendary X-Men scribe Chris Claremont would begin writing their adventures with #94- the first regular issue- and stay with them for an unprecedented 15 years! (That's longer than most fictional members would stay with the team!) For many readers, Chris Claremont became the X-Men, and for all the sales, spin-offs and merchandise, the book wasn’t the same without him when he left many yeares later. 1963 may be when the X-Men were created but the stories collected in this edition of Marvel Masterworks are where they were truly born for the new era of Marvel Comics. Though ona bi-monthly publication schedule for the first few years, the X-Men created quite the buzz in comics fandom,to the point where, when Byrne came aboard and the popularity really took off, back issues of the series increased in market price into the triple digits!

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